Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

That's just the control panel, a full-on configuration looked like this:

Very nice, but not really practical as a home computer.

Not practical you say? It doubles as a space heater and you'll be envied by your neighbours for the "art installation" in your basement   

Or, one cheats:  https://multicians.org/simulator.html

I have that here. It runs faster on my MacBook then the original did on the 2 CPU, 2 IOM, 2 SCU monster that filled the maths block ground floor that I used to use Multics for real on.

[cyclin_al]

Enabler!

https://www.princessauto.com/en/43-in-colour-lcd-inspection-camera/product/PA0008942997

I only have one task I need it for ... so far!

Re-enabler! now I have to buy mine ASAP.

   Ooops, I assumed you had already gone ahead 

[Saskia]

oh, I remember vividly hacking into an RS6k running AIX 4.3.3 which was hung due to 2 processes deadlocking on the CPUs, then creating an NMI, then hacking into the thread table and the processor thread, patching the part in the memory and generating another NMI to get the machine back into running state.

Back in those days, when universities were not flooded by snowflakes, no safe spaces where they could keep all challenges away ...

You can still do that. You might have to explain why, and how, but you can still do that. In my experience.

Edit: I can still do that, because I've got a maxed-out 43p with 4.3.3 on. Also a pair of rack machines with lots of oomph.

that was about 20 years ago when I did that for a living while doing post sales support for them in the Mayence support center.

back then and there I had a 9076-SP2 with 8 Power 3 to  play with ... and a 1280 CPU 9076 that I had tuned and gotten ready for sign off and acceptance by the customer.

Back then in the year 2001, a 1280 CPU 9076 with a terabyte of RAM was kind of nice.
And somewhat top of the line.

[cyclin_al]

I just watched this and he spoke about installing "Wine" to be able to run some Windows based software on Linux, although he does recommend learning to use just Linux based software. My question is, has anyone installed it, does it work and what are your thoughts about doing so. Ultimately, I may if I can get along with Linux, install it on my main PC which is a good few years newer than the Asrock and also of course far more powerful and faster.

I quickly watched the video. 
The warning with Rufus is to be taken seriously.  Writing an ISO wipes everything that existed there before.
He chose a troubleshoot from Windows option to start the install; for your older system, you might have to set your BIOS so that it will boot from the USB (or CD/DVD/etc.), which also was covered in the video.
The process is the same as he described for Ubuntu or Xubuntu.

I have never used Wine.  My own personal choice for those situations is Dual-boot.  I see Vince has some other good choices to consider as well.  Winner is ... swapping drives in your case.  That is just the hardware method for Dual-boot 

Have fun, and keep an open mind!

[Specmaster]

I just watched this and he spoke about installing "Wine" to be able to run some Windows based software on Linux, although he does recommend learning to use just Linux based software. My question is, has anyone installed it, does it work and what are your thoughts about doing so. Ultimately, I may if I can get along with Linux, install it on my main PC which is a good few years newer than the Asrock and also of course far more powerful and faster.

I quickly watched the video. 
The warning with Rufus is to be taken seriously.  Writing an ISO wipes everything that existed there before.
He chose a troubleshoot from Windows option to start the install; for your older system, you might have to set your BIOS so that it will boot from the USB (or CD/DVD/etc.), which also was covered in the video.
The process is the same as he described for Ubuntu or Xubuntu.

I have never used Wine.  My own personal choice for those situations is Dual-boot.  I see Vince has some other good choices to consider as well.  Winner is ... swapping drives in your case.  That is just the hardware method for Dual-boot 

Have fun, and keep an open mind!

Thanks I'm sure I will, but I don't need to boot from a USB or anything out the ordinary as it is already installed on the PC I was given. I only included that video because it mentioned the Wine emulator as well as other flavours of Linux etc.

If you saw my earlier post, if I like this Linux, then I'm very likely to install a system on my full sized tower, FX8350 powered system and have a Linux and a Windows SSD disc that I can swap over and boot up to switch between systems, like you mentioned, its the hardware version of dual booting.

[Specmaster]

A new Sinclair video for Specmaster on Computerphile channel....

Thanks for sharing this, it was very interesting as he mentions that at one point he said to Sir Clive, have a go at this, only to be told that he doesn't know how to. This was in fact born out when a person I knew, living in a very nice flat overlooking Trafalgar Square in London told me the same storey and that Sir Clive was actually living in a similar luxury flat, literally just round the corner and they often used to chat to each other and it turned out that Sir Clive never did own a computer, a slide rule yes. 

[tggzzz]

Outbid on both WaveTeks...   Just as well...

Ditto Tinsley standard resistors - by a factor of 3-4!

I only bid a small amount on those, think I saw over £600 earlier.

Have won a hernia producer I've been looking for some time, the 745A AC calibrator, also got one of the hp 5340A counters, a Sullivan megohmmeter, the lot of hp 855x SA plug-ins and a few others.

David

What did the Sulivan Megohmmeers go for? I own two already so could spare one if anyone missed in the auction.

£40-50, plus uplift. I got the other one.

Got mine home. Wasn't looking forward to seeing the state of the 9V battery - but the 2007 vintage EverReady Silver hadn't leaked.

I can now confirm that putting two 1Tohm resistors in series does result in a 2Tohm resistor, at least with 100V, 250V or 500V across them. The 1kV is a little noisy.

[beanflying]

Not sure if this is better or worse than waiting on hold for an eon 

Day 4 and 4 hours of sitting around waiting today

Complaint line to the NBN tells me to contact my service provider then cuts off the phonecall when I select the appropriate option. Service provider has no idea why NBN Co cancelled. Seriously couldn't organize a service in a house of ill repute 

Another afternoon to waste tomorrow waiting ....

And after some more beating them up got a 'free' month for the BS - win sort of.

[tautech]

Keep doing that Vince as we all need pulling into line when laziness rears its head.
Oh and how's your garage coming along ?

It's coming along....

Got the steel reinforcements delivered, as well as a palette of concrete blocks I need to raise the foundations to where I need them to be.
Ordered a concrete mixer truck, poured the concrete, all 7m3 of it. Paid a bit extra to get the 13m long telescopic belt conveyor option. Makes life so much easier. Guy has a radio remote control with a joystick and can easily and accurately steer the concrete all along the trenches. Also paid a little extra and ordered the "super fluid" concrete formula (extra dose of thinner additive and fine gravel rather than coarse), as the EU norm allows. Was like soup. Along with the conveyor, made the job a breeze and the few friends I had hired for the day to spread the concrete with rakes, did not have much if anything at all to do. Soup spread nicely all by itself.

Interesting you use conveyors over there when all remotely placed concrete is pumped here although usually a special 10mm pump mix as few can pump 20mm aggregates.
Is the top on the foundation blocks to be FFL ?
What must you use over the earth between the footings under the floor slab ? Compacted aggregate then fines and a moisture membrane ?

[Zucca]

This pinged on my RADAR a week or two ago after watching a Linus video:
https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-x-sennheiser-hd-58x-jubilee-headphones
Honestly seemed a little too good to be true at that price. Any opinions...?
mnem
 

Arrived today, chocolate in my hears. Thanks mnem!

[Zucca]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-sp500-motorgenerator-all-my-electronics-coils-magnets-tools/

    

[cyclin_al]

I received a present in the mail today!

Very nice board design.

Thanks!

[mnementh]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-sp500-motorgenerator-all-my-electronics-coils-magnets-tools/

    

Well this is strange, from Fuellesspower.com

https://youtu.be/etLPhs1ChAU

Sebastian12345 are you aware in this forum we are almost all engineers?

I'm imagining this in a accent somewhere halfway between Luigi from Mario Bros and Sigmung Freud... and it makes me smile.   

mnem
Duly noted, and inappropriate comments made.

[mnementh]

This pinged on my RADAR a week or two ago after watching a Linus video:
https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-x-sennheiser-hd-58x-jubilee-headphones
Honestly seemed a little too good to be true at that price. Any opinions...?
mnem
 

Arrived today, chocolate in my hears. Thanks mnem!

I am glad they were all you hoped for. While hardly comparable, one of the few things I do really regret forgetting at the house when we went back was these HDR160s:



mnem
*sigh*

[mnementh]

Oh, BTW: We have touched down in West Hartford, CT. Currently getting ready to crawl into a hotel bed and spent the next 10 hours comprehensively inspecting my eyelids for pinholes.

We already have 4 properties to view and 3 job interviews scheduled for the next 2 days.

mnem
Oh, thank Ifni... blessed horizontalness... *contented sigh*

[TERRA Operative]

Is that little one a dry slug tant? Probably worth leaving it in if so, those things are usually pretty solid.

I've had a couple in a Tek 1502 spew acid. Fortunately the PCB was simple and easy to repair.

The wet tants do that, notably the 109D series with their elastomer seal. The hermetic sealed ones rarely leak, but they are uber expensive...
I just replaced some of the 109D caps in my 5065A (and found one or two in my 8160A a while bak).
Dry slug tants (Tantalex etc like the 150D) don't have liquid inside, it's in the name!

https://www.vishay.com/docs/40021/wetelecttantcapsbasics.pdf

[beanflying]

Tethered Trawling because I am bored 

Melbourne Pickup or I might consider grabbing it for a look see and a play eBay auction: #334229618283



Just a nice 1929 item that the Pawnbroker with it wont be selling at $850 AU Pesos anytime soon  eBay auction: #175043861441



Bargain - maybe and in need of some love eBay auction: #194550321913

[Neomys Sapiens]

Next some one will start reminiscing about RT-11.     

Hey, I even know where my set of 8" floppies is located. Or would you prefer some Concurrent CP/M?

[Messtechniker]

@Vince
Thanks for the feedback, it makes sense does that, but I think I may have a better solution if I find that I do actually like Linux and no what happens I still want to retain the capability of running Windows for games etc and other reasons. What I'm now seriously considering is to install a removable caddy on the other machine and get 2 trays for it, fit a SSD in each, 1 with Windows, the other with Linux installed and swap O/S drives over depending on what I want to do, sound better than a dual boot system  to me.

No need for this tray stuff. I use a so called mobile rack like DELOCK 47194, for example, to change between Windows and Linux on separate SSDs, which are directly inserted.  Been using this arrangement for 2 years now. Even so, Linux is not getting much use. But that's only me. I also have a third SSD for testing a NAS like "Open Media Vault". In all, highly convenient. No Boot messups.

[Specmaster]

Oh, BTW: We have touched down in West Hartford, CT. Currently getting ready to crawl into a hotel bed and spent the next 10 hours comprehensively inspecting my eyelids for pinholes.

We already have 4 properties to view and 3 job interviews scheduled for the next 2 days.

mnem
Oh, thank Ifni... blessed horizontalness... *contented sigh*

Good luck with the house and job hunting.

[Andrew_Debbie]

Next some one will start reminiscing about RT-11.     

Hey, I even know where my set of 8" floppies is located. Or would you prefer some Concurrent CP/M?

Y2K patch here   --> https://pdp-11.org.ru/files.pl?lang=en

You might need to find a working RK05 or RL02     


The nuclear powerplant up the road was using a PDP-11 until they shut down the plant in December 2015.     For all I know they  were using it up until defueling completed in 2019.

The PDP-11 and a Dec Alpha replaced a pair of Marconi TAC computers, which ran the control and emergency systems for 38 years.    Final TAC switch off was in 2004.   I believe the TAC was the first all-transistor computer ever sold.

One of the TACs ended up in a Museum.  The other is with a private collector. 
https://www.tnmoc.org/marconi-tac

[THDplusN_bad]

Tethered Trawling because I am bored 

Melbourne Pickup or I might consider grabbing it for a look see and a play eBay auction: #334229618283



[..]

Wow- that Wandel & Goltermann oscilloscope is very rare, even here in Germany where it was produced.
It surely had a loooong travel to Australia. W&G had stopped developing oscilloscopes after this model AFAIK.

Here's a bit of background: http://koschuh.com/museum/wandel_goltermann/wago.htm German only, I am afraid - you may just pick your favourite online translator....

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

[Specmaster]

@Vince
Thanks for the feedback, it makes sense does that, but I think I may have a better solution if I find that I do actually like Linux and no what happens I still want to retain the capability of running Windows for games etc and other reasons. What I'm now seriously considering is to install a removable caddy on the other machine and get 2 trays for it, fit a SSD in each, 1 with Windows, the other with Linux installed and swap O/S drives over depending on what I want to do, sound better than a dual boot system  to me.

No need for this tray stuff. I use a so called mobile rack like DELOCK 47194, for example, to change between Windows and Linux on separate SSDs, which are directly inserted.  Been using this arrangement for 2 years now. Even so, Linux is not getting much use. But that's only me. I also have a third SSD for testing a NAS like "Open Media Vault". In all, highly convenient. No Boot messups.

Yes, that is the type of system I was referring to. I thought the rack was called a tray.

[Vince]

Keep doing that Vince as we all need pulling into line when laziness rears its head.
Oh and how's your garage coming along ?

It's coming along....

Got the steel reinforcements delivered, as well as a palette of concrete blocks I need to raise the foundations to where I need them to be.
Ordered a concrete mixer truck, poured the concrete, all 7m3 of it. Paid a bit extra to get the 13m long telescopic belt conveyor option. Makes life so much easier. Guy has a radio remote control with a joystick and can easily and accurately steer the concrete all along the trenches. Also paid a little extra and ordered the "super fluid" concrete formula (extra dose of thinner additive and fine gravel rather than coarse), as the EU norm allows. Was like soup. Along with the conveyor, made the job a breeze and the few friends I had hired for the day to spread the concrete with rakes, did not have much if anything at all to do. Soup spread nicely all by itself.

Interesting you use conveyors over there when all remotely placed concrete is pumped here although usually a special 10mm pump mix as few can pump 20mm aggregates.

Pump was not even considered as simply not necessary, conveyor is enough as you can see. Pump is also prohibitive anyway, so ruled out right there. Quote says 500 Euros for the pump, for 5m3 of concrete. But I had 7m3 so god knows how much more they would have charge for that.
Even the conveyor was a luxury, but at 150 Euros it was a luxury I could justify, as the other option, ie having the truck dump all the concrete at its feet/wheels.... did not appeal to me !  So I made an effort and coughed for the conveyor.

Total bill 800 Euros of concrete + 150 for the conveyor, total 950 Euros.

Is the top on the foundation blocks to be FFL ?

I don't know what " FFL " means  Google says it means in French "French Federation of Losers "... 

What must you use over the earth between the footings under the floor slab ? Compacted aggregate then fines and a moisture membrane ?

Yes, a thick layer of 20mm gravel, 10cm minimum but as much as you can afford really. Then a bit of sand on top of it, to make the surface smooth enough to then lay a plastic membrane to keep moisture from contacting the slab and degrade it over time.

[AVGresponding]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-sp500-motorgenerator-all-my-electronics-coils-magnets-tools/

    

Well this is strange, from Fuellesspower.com

https://youtu.be/etLPhs1ChAU

Sebastian12345 are you aware in this forum we are almost all engineers?

I'm imagining this in a accent somewhere halfway between Luigi from Mario Bros and Sigmung Freud... and it makes me smile.   

mnem
Duly noted, and inappropriate comments made.

I made appropriate comments instead, as I'm not a dwagon.